Giaros or Yiaros is an uninhabited island in the centre of the North Cyclades, has long been a no-go destination. Before it became a military base it was used as another of those islands of exile.
Giaros was particularly notorious during the rule of the military junta 1967-74, when a number of prominent dissidents were imprisoned here (at least, they were given the bricks and told to make a prison).
Now declared to be a historic site deserving state protection by the Greek Minister for Culture, Giaros is to be protected by a presidential decree banning further military activity.
Hopefully this means that Giaros will become a day-trip destination from the neighbouring islands of Andros, Tinos and Syros, but as the island remains something of an unknown quantity, it is difficult to say what day-trippers could hope to see beyond the empty jail complex, though it could be marketed as the Greek Alcatraz.
